PML-N's Raja Farooq Haider elected as new AJK PM

MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate Raja Farooq Haider Khan as the leader of the house on Sunday.

Farooq Haider received 38 votes out of the total 48 votes.  Apart from the ruling PML-N’s candidate, Chaudhry Yasin from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Devan Ghulam Mohiuddin had also submitted their papers for nomination.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a schedule for selection of the AJK president as well. The papers for presidency would be submitted on August 11 at 10 AM, where scrutiny of the papers would be carried out on the same day.

The papers for nomination could be taken back till 12 PM on August 11. Polling would begin on August 15, from 10 AM to 3 PM.

PML-N’s Farooq Haider has served as prime minister earlier, and he is currently president of the PM-N AJK chapter.

On Saturday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Shah Ghulam Qadir and Sardar Farooq Tahir were elected as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.

According to the official results of the AJK polls on July 21, PML-N had emerged as front-runner in the polls for AJK Legislative Assembly with 31 seats to its credit.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif following his party’s major win, had directed the members of the AJK Legislative Assembly that the new government in the state should work for strong, transparent, corruption free administration, which must guarantee a system that is based on merit.